Spring 2020 Update from Dean Rajagopal

Hello. My name is Krishna Rajagopal and I'm MIT's Dean for Digital Learning. Ordinarily, I would be recording this update for the OCW community from our offices on campus but as these are not ordinary times I find myself delivering this message to you from my home in the same way that so many MIT faculty along with educators all around the world are right now teaching their students from home during this global pandemic. From the beginning, OpenCourseWare was meant to be a resource for anyone who wants to learn, whenever and wherever they need it. We've always believed in the urgency of our mission but never before have we seen the stakes rise so immediately as we have these past several weeks. With millions even billions of people around the world asked to stay apart, stay at home, and adapt to sudden changes in the way we all live, work, connect, and learn. This has brought particular challenges for educators and needs for all of us as learners. Here at MIT as Dean I have the new responsibility of supporting, encouraging, and applauding my faculty colleagues as all of a sudden we're teaching 1,250 courses online for our students who are now remote learners all around the globe. If you are an educator and want to see how we're helping our instructors find their way you can have a look at our teachremote.mit.edu website and if you're a student, figuring out how to navigate a world of remote learning for yourself, you can have a look at our learnremote.mit.edu website which we set up for our students. Just as we have long done via OCW itself, here at MIT, we're sharing what we do with the world. In the midst of these changes we have been humbled by the role that OCW is playing. It should be no secret to you that many of our faculty are using materials from OCW in their remote teaching right now. Just as any of you can use OCW as part of your remote learning. Since March, we've seen a significant increase in the number of visits to OCW from learners all around the world, seeing as much as a 95% increase in visits to OCW over the same period last year. These millions of visits include a significant share from new users visiting OCW for the very first time, coming to us from all around the world with India, Brazil, Turkey, Germany, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, as well as the United States among the countries where we have seen the largest increases. These numbers tell an inspiring story about the resilience of learners in the face of an immense global challenge. I'm inspired that at this time of great stress and uncertainty so many of you are focusing your time and your energy on learning. Whether you're students keeping your education going, lifelong learners laying the groundwork for what you want to do next in your workplace when you return, or simply, satisfying your curiosity at this time. All of you remind all of us, just how valuable open access to online learning resources like OCW can be, in extraordinary, and ordinary times alike. In the past month, MIT has also launched a Full Steam Ahead website, a new rapid response offering that gives all of you new curated ways of finding MIT learning resources for k-12, higher education, and lifelong learning from OCW and more during this Covid-19 pandemic. Like so many others, the OCW team is now working from home, and doing very well indeed. We continue to publish courses, support our learners, and prepare new episodes of OCW's Chalk Radio podcast, all from our homes. The first season of Chalk Radio brings you conversations with beloved MIT faculty like Amah Edoh, Anjali Sastry, Mike Short and Gil Strang. Chalk Radio shares the personal stories and passions behind the inspired teaching that powers MIT and so many of the courses you love on OCW. In its first two months, Chalk Radio podcasts have been heard over 80 thousand times. As we approach the milestone of OCW's 20th anniversary next year, we're busy planning for the next 20 years of OpenCourseWare. The team is working hard on a next-generation OCW platform that will give you exciting new ways to learn from, and teach with, openly shared MIT resources. I'll tell you more about that in the fall. Sharing MIT with the world, giving educators and learners everywhere new opportunities to teach and learn, is what OCW is all about. Teaching and learning, after all, is what we do, together. In this moment when we're all apart, here at OCW we're inspired by the ways that so many of you are relying upon OpenCourseWare to continue your learning, together with MIT, as always. If OCW has been helpful to you, we invite you to join us by sharing your story with us. And, we ask you to share OCW with the people in your life. Telling us how you use OCW helps us understand the impact that OCW has had in recent weeks and how we can make it better as we move forward. Spreading the word about OCW ensures that your friends, your colleagues, and your family know that they have a resource to turn to in OCW whenever, wherever, and however they might need it. As all of us navigate the coming weeks and months together, we want you to know that OCW is here for you and will continue to be here for you. Thank you for learning and thank you for learning with us.

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